Best weather to fish

The best time/weather to be fishing? The question everybody always wants to know and always has an opinion on. My option? Best time to be fishing is the one you have the line in the water.

Been carp fishing for only a few weeks and went out yesterday to my local dam(George/garden route dam) was a very quiet day on account of the weather not being too great with expected showers and clouds throughout the day.

What a day it turned out to be, in total I landed 8 all around the 1kg mark. Right from the start fishing 3 rods (one close, one medium, and one distance). All between about 11 until 4. And then at about 3pm BAM, the fright of my life, my 'close' rod which is a 9' sea rod with the cheapest tiniest little real on goes screaming before I could even get the 2m to grab it, it hits the clip I have set. I manage to get to the rod and start bringing it in!

What excitement it was for me, my biggest to date was a 2.4kg I had caught at the same dam a few weeks ago. This 'beast' when weighed comes in at a good and healthy 5.1kg.

So here it is, my new PB at 5.1kg caught on a day that most would stay away(and in fact actually did) but was a day enjoyed by a newbie and the reason I will keep fishing for years to come!!

2 12' rods on the left and my 9' sea rod on the right

Good one.
I have found those stormy windy cloudy days with change in the air to be best for carp fishing.
Quiet hot days are often "dead" (except for early in the morning/and at night)
But as you said, best time to fish is when you have a line in the water.

looks like a LOVELY piece of water, nice fish and congrats.

Cloudy days never lets one down.

I love this dam! Has become my regular 'wind down' spot, spend any chance I get there! Also been able to use it to learn, have only been carp fishing for about a month now. Had a pretty good day yesterday too. Landed 10 in total and lost about 4(my own fault) most are around 1-2kg with 2 coming out at 2.7kg and one at 3.7kg.

Learning to 'play' the fish has become my main game lately, lost a huge one yesterday because I'm still learning it haha. Ended up with the drag way too tight and just completely pulled the hook. Only realized how tight the drag was when I felt it after loosing the fish, got that tight cause the fish kept pulling more and more line out haha_seal1_

All part of the fun I guess! Learning as I go::tight:

Get into the habit of testing the drag on each reel at the start of each session, and practice practice practice makes perfect!

I do test the drag, but I start to panic when the line starts to scream out so end up tightening it more and more. Like I say, learning to play the fish so that I don't have to rely on the drag to bring it in!

You can tighten the drag all the way and learn to play the fish with anti-reverse.

That venue reminds me Tzaneen in a way.

I'm getting it right

Learning every time I go out. And having fun doing it_seal1_

That's the ticket camnefdtt, as long as you enjoy your fishing you will learn and improve along the way. That lake is one of my absolute favourite carp fishing spots, I've spent many hours fishing there, absolutely love it.

There are some real pigs in there as well, but it's not an easy venue to fish.

Yeah I've heard of plenty 15kg+ being pulled out, and maybe one day il get the honor of getting one of those beasts out

For now I'm enjoying just the fact of catching and getting to spend the day out in nature! Fiddling around with flavors and baits and techniques to also understand how everything effects how it all works and catch rate etc. I started off with just the 2 12' rods, both sitting at a med distance, found that only the one or the other would get bites. So now with my tapered method, they are pretty much all 3 getting equal bites at equal intervals. So that's the way I'm sticking to for now.

Some things I also believe come down to personal preference. Like for hook link I only use braid and I only fish with one hook

Enjoy, wish I could be out there on that bank

did you ever fish hartebeeskuil by any chance?

I took a drive down there once to have a look, but never fished there. From my understanding the dam only holds small carp and some catfish, so I wasn't keen.

Yea I took a drive there a few weeks ago to check it out and considering the fact that you have to pay to fish there, I wasn't very impressed. Looking at maybe taking part in a competition happening there in a couple weeks time just for the sake of it. Will see what happens though

Don't know if I'm ready for competition yet haha, only been at it for about a month or 2 now and have only fished at the George dam.

There are some pretty good farm dams in the area too, little secret spots where there are big carp that don't get fished for very often. A lot of the farmers are pretty accommodating if you approach them right and respect their property. It might be a good option for you seeing as you're still new to the sport, getting a couple of good fish under your belt early on boosts confidence and keeps you going on tougher venues like GRD. I'll PM you some suggestions, don't want to share in public, the farmers probably don't want to be overrun

Your help is greatly appreciated_seal1_

May one ask what did you use in form of bait like what floats and dips?